


black and blue and red all over.

by ohlookatthestars (KanbaraAkhito)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, also i posted this on tumblr like last year what am i, anyways enjoy!, there is brief mentions of blood so i made it T just in case, this is just my take on the combined purple and gold protection suit thingy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 09:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11437830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KanbaraAkhito/pseuds/ohlookatthestars
Summary: Just for a moment, the dance slows. Just for a moment, Adrien sees his ethereal Ladybug.Bruises of every color litter her skin, her flashy crimson suit worse for the wear. There’s blood flowing from her left ear and Adrien feels a fury rise in him, realizing how close Hawkmoth was to stealing the Ladybug Paris treasured. With the fury comes a crushing sense of guilt. Here a villain with aspirations of world domination, a man who craved nothing but the downfall of the admired teen superheroes, a monster, had been planning his great finale.





	black and blue and red all over.

Adrien Agreste has always worked to keep a schedule. Even when he is late, it’s planned, he has a reason, he is prepared. 

Just once, Adrien Agreste was nearly too late. Just once, Chat Noir was completely unprepared.

Running, leaping, falling, and praying, Chat Noir flips over a building turret, hoping, _needing_ to not be too late. The people of Paris see a black blur streaking towards the Notre Dame, or they would have were they not fleeing in fear, away from the vaunted cathedral. 

He’s opposite the Notre Dame, the only thing in his way the glittering Seine. Most days, he would be fascinated with its beauty. Today, all he can focus on is the whirl of reds and blacks and purples, clashing in a horrible dance atop one of Paris’ most coveted tourist spots. 

Just for a moment, the dance slows. Just for a moment, Adrien sees his ethereal Ladybug. 

Bruises of every color litter her skin, her flashy crimson suit worse for the wear. There’s blood flowing from her left ear and Adrien feels a fury rise in him, realizing how close Hawkmoth was to stealing the Ladybug Paris treasured. With the fury comes a crushing sense of guilt. Here a villain with aspirations of world domination, a man who craved nothing but the downfall of the admired teen superheroes, a monster, had been planning his great finale. 

And, where was Adrien?

In Spain, on _vacation_ , enjoying Nathalie’s lilted Spanish and the cacophonous streets of Madrid. 

He had been taking a jovial stroll in the Plaza Mayor while Ladybug, sweet Ladybug, was calling out to him, asking for help from her other half, trusting him to be there. 

Adrien remembered, seeing her face plastered across an LED screen, _“Una tragedia en Francia.” A tragedy in France._

He had run. Ran and leaped and fallen and _prayed_.

_Please. Please let me not be too late._

Now, Chat Noir zeroes in on his partner, using his baton to leap the Seine and skirting up the side of the Notre Dame with ease, landing a flying kick to Hawk Moth’s chest as the corrupt Miraculous holder gets a little too close to Ladybug for his liking. 

With the villain busy reeling, he whips towards his beloved where she’s frozen, startled. Then she’s moving, but not in a good way. Up close, he can see it’s much worse than he’s thought originally. She’s bruised, bloody, and beaten, and she’s _tired_. He can see in those beautiful blues how exhausted she is, having to transform and release over and over and over again. Over and over with no one to help her. Because he wasn’t there. 

She moves, and Adrien watches as Paris’ femme fatal collapses on herself, fatigued muscles finally giving out. No doubt, she’d been running on adrenaline for quite some time now, and he was her relief. The energy she had been forced to maintain drained out of her and then she was falling, but this time, he was there to catch her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeats it like a mantra into her hair as he holds her to him as gently as possible, “I wasn’t even _here_ , wasn’t here to support you, to fight with you, to protect you when you needed it most, I’m-”

“Shh, kitty, don’t apologize.”

The world around them is burning but she is calm and collected. She is a hero.

“But I _have_ to. I wasn’t here, Ladybug, and now look at you, you’re hurt, you’re-”

She cuts him off a second time, and this time she’s smiling. Her lip is split and there’s a scratch across her cheek but she’s smiling.

“Listen to me,” her hands come up to cup his face, “This is _not your fault_. Okay? It’s not. There is _no way_ you could have known, Chat Noir. I was just lucky enough to be around.”

She laughs then, rusty and mingled with a cough, but there’s love and trust and happiness in it and Adrien kind of really wants to cry. The sky is blue, the birds are singing, and there’s a final showdown taking place on the Notre Dame. Just a few miles away, civilians are enjoying the Louvre without much cause for distress. But to Chat Noir and Ladybug, their whole world is this ancient Gothic cathedral. Everything ends here. The big boss battle, as Nino would call it. Except this is real life and they don’t respawn if they die. 

“It’s going to be okay, kitty. I know what’s going to happen, what you have to do, she told me, Tikki told me. It won’t be easy, but you’re going to do it Chat Noir. Paris needs you to. I need you to. I believe in you.”

It’s fond and confusing, but then Ladybug is closing her eyes and Adrien feels the panic rising in his throat. _No, no, no, not her, not her-_

There’s a soft glow at her feet, and Adrien watches, unable to move, as Ladybug becomes Marinette Dupain-Cheng. A small part of him is glad, glad its her, he had begun to see the signs and hoped against all hope it was her. Wonderful, clumsy, kind-hearted Marinette, with a penchant for sass, though only around his alter ego. There had been something so Ladybug about her, and as he had become closer to her as both Adrien and Chat Noir, he had become almost certain. 

Now, Chat Noir wishes it wasn’t her. Wishes it wasn’t Marinette’s body he was holding in his arms. The panic consumes him until his ear flutters, and he hears the telltale thump of her heartbeat, and relief slackens his body. His attention is taken by a weak squeaking by his ear, and he turns to see a wide-eyed, beat up looking, crimson Plagg. Marinette’s kwami. Before he can speak, she’s cutting him off. In a different situation he’d laugh at how alike both kwami and holder were. 

“There isn’t time to explain, but Marinette most likely told you something. Her body can’t take another transformation, but I have just enough energy left for one more. You need to let me into your Miraculous. I know it sounds crazy, but this is what Chat Noir and Ladybug were meant for. This is the power of the two most powerful Miraculouses.” 

It’s a lot to take in and Adrien honestly doesn’t understand, but he nods, setting his shoulders. He will avenge Marinette, and he will beat Hawk Moth. For the both of them. For the world.

He holds his ring hand out to the tired kwami, who takes a deep breath before diving head on, into his ring. For a moment, she simply disappears. Then Adrien feels it, the soft tingling and a buildup of, of _something_ , a _feeling_. His suit begins to change, ebony fading to a pretty violet, golden whorls interspersed evenly. He feels his claws grow sharper, metallic gold, and gauntlets rise to encase his forearms. His baton alters as well, the ends tapering off to a point. At his hip, rests a yo-yo, similar to the one his partner is famous for. 

As the transformation completes, Adrien recognizes the emotion welling within him. _Protectiveness_. Ladybug is creation, Chat Noir is destruction. Together, they are protection from all evils that threaten the people they love.

Light glints off the tip of his gauntlet as Adrien Agreste storms towards the moth who flew too close to the light, eyes blazing gold.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i just felt like with all the instances where chat noir has literally given up his life to protect mari that maybe the protection thing would fall to him. i really love the depictions of marinette, though, i am conflicted. tumblr: @annabethchsaes


End file.
